Rangers’ unconventional Artemi Panarin solution for power play

After losing one of the top power-play defensemen in the NHL for at least the next several weeks, the Rangers are going to try something unconventional to spark their inconsistent season.

With former Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox placed on long-term injured reserve with an apparent left arm injury, Rangers coach Mike Sullivan, at least initially, plans to deploy the five-forward power-play alignment he used late in Saturday’s home loss to the Lightning.

All-Star winger Artemi Panarin will man the blue line with the man advantage to start Tuesday’s game against the Stars at the Garden after working with fellow forwards Mika Zibanejad, J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck and Will Cuylle during Monday’s practice in Tarrytown.

“[Losing Fox is] very bad,” said Panarin, who is tied with Fox for the team scoring lead with 26 points. “He is a great player who generates for us, the first pass out of our zone to send us to the O-Zone, so just everything. A big power-play loss too. He’s great on the power play. Just very sad for him.

“It’s pretty sad, but we can’t do anything now. We don’t have time to figure out being sad for us. Just gotta score again.”

Panarin acknowledged he doesn’t have extensive experience in that role but said he often switches places with Fox during the normal flow of the power play.

Sullivan said Panarin’s vision and ability to get his shot through to the net made him the natural fit — along with potentially Zibanejad — among the forward corps to play at the top.

To wit, during practice, Panarin rifled a wrister from the top of the right circle that beat goalie Jonathan Quick over the right shoulder

The Rangers ranked 12th in the NHL through Sunday’s league action with a power-play efficiency of 21.3 percent, but they improved to 29 percent over 15 November games (fifth best) and an NHL-best 40 percent over their past nine contests.

“When I switch with Foxy, I’ve been there a few times in the game, so it’s kind of not really new for me,” Panarin said. “I switch with him a lot, but now I gotta stay there. I like [playing the point] actually. I think I have more options and more play with the puck, which I like.

“I will try obviously being a little safer, trying to play a little safer up top. But I also can’t be, like, too conservative because it’s obviously not working like that.”

Sullivan also said the decision to go with Panarin as the quarterback rather than turning to a veteran defensemen such as Braden Schneider or Vladislav Gavrikov or rookie Scott Morrow is because he doesn’t think that’s “the strength of their games to this point.”

“We’re trying to put a power play together that we think gives us the best opportunity to have success,” Sullivan said. “Obviously, Foxy, I think, is an elite power-play defenseman, with how he distributes the puck up there and the way he sees the game. He’s got really good instincts. We don’t think that’s necessarily the strength of some of the other guys.”

The 23-year-old Morrow, who has appeared in four games for the Rangers and 12 for AHL Hartford, ran the second power-play unit in practice alongside forwards Alexis Lafrenière, Jonny Brodzinski, Conor Sheary and Noah Laba.

Sullivan said for Morrow to be given a chance on the power play, he needs to be more “assertive and make decisions with conviction and not being in between” while “eliminating hesitation from his game.”